Deputy Director Scot L. Beckenbaugh, Director of Mediation Services John Sweeney, and Commissioner Guy Serota to serve as the mediators.

Mediation agreements are binding. The parties are not bound to agree to anything in mediation.

Wow that is shocking. Hopefully it ends well and doesn't break down even further. Guess we will find out on Wednesday.

As someone rooting for the maximum chaos of this reaching January and the Phoenix situation imploding, I'm kind of sad.

Fun fact from Chris Johnson on Twitter: The NHL and NHLPA met with federal mediators on February 13, 2005. Three days later the season was cancelled.

---------- Post added 2012-11-26 at 04:30 PM ----------

I like Wysh's take on the mediation. Either it is going to help get things resolved or the mediator is going to look at the deal, laugh at the NHL's claim that it is giving major concessions to the players and then the entire thing explodes.

On a lockout related note, pretty proud of myself and my ongoing boycott of anything the NHL might make a dime on. Amazon had their NHL beanies on sale for $10 and I was going to buy a Sabres one before it got cold out (the Wings is bright red. Honestly, print them all in Navy or black depending on the team with the logo) and I held out saying fuck da NHL.

On a lockout related note, pretty proud of myself and my ongoing boycott of anything the NHL might make a dime on. Amazon had their NHL beanies on sale for $10 and I was going to buy a Sabres one before it got cold out (the Wings is bright red. Honestly, print them all in Navy or black depending on the team with the logo) and I held out saying fuck da NHL.

Well I feel weak... I bought 4. Sabres, Wings, Preds and Coyotes.

You can tell WoW changed the MMO for good when players started complaining about the amount of time they sink, into a time sink.

Toronto is now worth as much as the bottom 7 teams in the NHL combined. St Louis is the least valuable franchise in the NHL.
Teams that lost money in 2011:
Phoenix- $20.6 million
Columbus- $18.7 million
Islanders- $16 million
Tampa Bay- $13.1 million
Florida- $12 million
Anaheim- $10.8 million
Buffalo- $10.4 million
St Louis- $10 million
Hurricanes- $9.4 million
Minnesota- $3.9 million
Nashville- $3.4 million
Washington- $1 million
San Jose- $.9 million

Everyone else made between $1 million and $13 million. Average profits were around $8 million per team. Revenue was up 9% last season. 83% of the leagues operating income comes from the Leafs, Rangers, and Habs. According to their analysis, even boosting revenue sharing by 33% to $200 million annually and reduced to a 50/50 revenue split, teams like Phoenix, Columbus, etc. STILL wouldn't even come close to breaking even without going at least 2 playoff rounds deep every single year and selling out more games. Good fucking luck with that.

Look at the shit shape the Devils are in as a franchise thanks to the owner. They were a top 10 revenue generator last year at $122 million (thanks to the Finals run) yet they produced just $2.8 million in operating income. In fact, the amount of debt that the Devils franchise owes, again thanks to their shit owner, is 112% of the value of the entire franchise.

I'm not buying those numbers, especially when at the end of playoffs last year the Nashville owners announced that they actually made a small profit. Granted that may have included total Arena profits, but I don't believe it did.

Also as far as Toronto being worth more than the bottom 7 teams combined, lets look at how long Toronto has been around and then look at how long the bottom 7 has been around. Toronto didn't get that kind of value overnight, and neither can the newer franchises ( which I'm assuming are the bottom 7).

I'm not buying those numbers, especially when at the end of playoffs last year the Nashville owners announced that they actually made a small profit. Granted that may have included total Arena profits, but I don't believe it did.

Also as far as Toronto being worth more than the bottom 7 teams combined, lets look at how long Toronto has been around and then look at how long the bottom 7 has been around. Toronto didn't get that kind of value overnight, and neither can the newer franchises ( which I'm assuming are the bottom 7).

Bottom seven in franchise value from worst to less worse: St Louis, Phoenix, Columbus, Islanders, Carolina, Nashville, Florida. So two long existing franchises, two newer expansions, two horribly stupid relocations, and one not so recent expansion team. I'm sure that it isn't just complete coincidence all the original six teams are the top six most valuable, but that isn't the end of the story. Most of the low value teams are in bad markets. Not all expansion or relocations have been failures. Winnipeg moved from Atlanta and immediately moved way up the list to #20 and should go up from there. Minnesota is pretty great and not that old. San Jose is a smart organization. The value of the franchises comes down to basically intelligence and common sense. Does it make sense to expand to Minnesota or to Florida and expect a franchise to succeed? Does it make sense to relocate a team to Winnipeg or to Phoenix? The franchises that are typically low in value are low because of the stupidity of Gary Bettman's expansion and relocation projects or in the case of the Islanders due to having an arena that is literally falling apart and the team being meh for a long time.

Bottom seven in franchise value from worst to less worse: St Louis, Phoenix, Columbus, Islanders, Carolina, Nashville, Florida. So two long existing franchises, two newer expansions, two horribly stupid relocations, and one not so recent expansion team. I'm sure that it isn't just complete coincidence all the original six teams are the top six most valuable, but that isn't the end of the story. Most of the low value teams are in bad markets. Not all expansion or relocations have been failures. Winnipeg moved from Atlanta and immediately moved way up the list to #20 and should go up from there. Minnesota is pretty great and not that old. San Jose is a smart organization. The value of the franchises comes down to basically intelligence and common sense. Does it make sense to expand to Minnesota or to Florida and expect a franchise to succeed? Does it make sense to relocate a team to Winnipeg or to Phoenix? The franchises that are typically low in value are low because of the stupidity of Gary Bettman's expansion and relocation projects or in the case of the Islanders due to having an arena that is literally falling apart and the team being meh for a long time.

Still though I don't think my point was completely crazy. I'm betting if you look at most of the sports out there the newer franchises are the ones that are the least valuable and being that in most cases those teams are moving into either new or smaller markets it makes pretty good sense. Sure you are going to get some that are just bad ideas, but even in some of those cases it could have much better if not for other factors ( mainly bad ownership ).

I bet if you look at the NFL and the NBA as well, most of the lower ones for them would also be those that are newer teams, and most of those were also in smaller markets. I don't think Betteman was crazy for trying to expanded the league in the area's that he did, what was bad on his part was not making sure that those franchises were set up right with good leases, good locations, and owners that weren't complete idiots.

I don't think Betteman was crazy for trying to expanded the league in the area's that he did, what was bad on his part was not making sure that those franchises were set up right with good leases, good locations, and owners that weren't complete idiots.